I can't find the video clip, but from Michelman's own account, it seems that Matthews was just phrasing the question provocatively to set up her response:

Knowing that I had just announced my support for Barack Obama for president after having earlier supported my old friend John Edwards, Matthews had me on his show Monday. His first Hardball to me was one of his typical zingers: "Kate Michelman, how does it feel to have abandoned the cause of your life?"

The simple answer, Chris, is that I haven't -- in fact, my endorsement of Barack, just like my earlier embrace of John Edwards, is all about exalting the causes of my life. Not about repudiating them...

Blah blah blah.

Of course, I completely agree with her that women don't have to vote for Hillary to be true to feminism.

Matthews' other Hardball, which also deserved more time than the red light gave me, was:

"How can you pass, Kate, on the opportunity to support a woman for president when this may be the last chance for that to happen in your lifetime?"

I don't think that's a different "hardball." Sounds like he had a hook for the segment and you didn't take the bait vigorously enough to justify having you on, so he tried again. It was pretty mean of him to insinuate that you're really old, but you do sound awfully fusty. You don't need more time. You need to take advantage of the opportunity given by the question and slam your point home. Not seethe and go write a wordy, grim Salon piece about it.

We are looking to vote for a future leader of our country, not make cultural history. Hillary Clinton is not the most qualified or experienced woman to run for the office. There are several women who have real, documented and verifiable qualifications and experience but for whatever reason chose not to run; Boxer, Feinstein, Pelosi, and some governors. I believe that voting for anyone based on some gender, racial, or ethnic loyalty demonstrates a lack of intelligence and a form of narrow tunnel vision.

As to her complaint, she should have just answered the damn question. Some people have trouble with that, especially when there is limited time. Ms. Michelman is not a novice in dealing with the media and television. She knows if she has to answer a question about a POV, she must answer the question, not get set up for another and not have the time to answer that one.

Make an effort to show that you care about participating with us in a constructive way or I will ask you to leave...And making an effort means responding to the topic discussed. Don't make it about you. And that includes arguing with me about this. Email me if you want to discuss my view that you are a troll. It will not be a topic here.

(2) I tried to come up with something both clever and funny to say after reading that piece but that pompous crap just pissed me off.

Hey Michelman! How about you celebrate your commitment to exhalt this cause!!! It’s right here, IN MY PANTS!!!

(3) I’m concerned that this f-hole commenter person has been treated unjustly here at Althouse and that he or she may be in need of medical attention. But don’t worry, I’ve called for the waaahmbulance.

I've never met Middle Class Guy but I'm going to guess that one of his achievements, and certainly not his greatest, is to have never lied to a grand jury. It's a wild guess based only on getting to know him by his comments around here.

He also has achieved a sense of humor. Maybe, if you ask nicely, you could get him to give you some lessons. You know, just to get you started.

Ok, I've had enough of "fstop" now. So which departed troll do you guys think it is? I think most of them are the same boring, scary, bitter person. Anyway, it's obvious that this incarnation (like all the others) is commenting here in bad faith and simply trying to make every single comment thread into a discussion about it/him/her. My advice: IGNORE.

middle class guy - For Hillary, marrying a trailer trash hillbilly was marrying well. It was a step up.

I'm no fan of Clintons, but am incredibly proud that the American system allows a poor, talented, and ambitious person to rise and become President, try for President, or reach thousands of other personal goals that person believes is the pinnacle of their potentials.

We may not like the politics of half of such men, but where would we be without the leaders, businesmem, military up from poverty.

Without the poor hungry boy on a failing lemon farm in Nowheresville, CA - born with an IQ of 145-150 and an indominable will and feeling of patriotism - dreaming of all the trains he heard passing near the farm, going somewhere without him. How he could somehow get on a journey to all those places. And in America he did. He carried his determination, brains, and sadly, personal flaws on a magnificent but partially bitter life's journey.

Hardscrabble types who make it. Clinton, Reagan, Loretta Lynn, Andrew Jackson, Nixon, George Romney, Andrew Carnaghie, Edison. And add Truman, Cary Grant, LBJ, Chuck Yaeger, Abraham Lincoln, Gordon Moore, Mark Twain, Sam Walton....and countless millions many more who are not as famous but who came from poor families, even bad homes, to make it to where there ambitions and skills let them...

(We gave a community dinner ceremony to a Filipino immigrant couple who worked 30 years in every job possible. Now he is a "senior technician" at a plant and his wife is a owner of a hairdressing salon. They live in a small house. The ceremony was attended by a US Senator. It was to honor the graduation of their 5th and final son, joining 1 daughter and 3 other boys, as graduates of the Coast Guard Academy, Naval Academy, and West Point. 3 of the 5 were their HS valedictorians. The family will never be famous, the accomplishment, arising from couple coming from Filipino "mountain people trash", is stellar.

Call them flawed, hate their beliefs or politics...but they are the hope of America manifested in it's citizens and immigrants who rise from nothing..not trash, not a one of them - from Clinton to the Sassapuguay Family.

"How can you pass, Kate, on the opportunity to support a woman for president when this may be the last chance for that to happen in your lifetime?"

Kate repeated the question to indicate she fully understood what she was being asked, but she went further, to exaggerate her empathy for the point of view she repeated the question clenching her fists and contorting her face pantomiming agonized pleading. The audience laughed. She continued in her natural voice, in contrast, lower even to Chris Matthews' own.

"That, among my Amazon tribe of women's-rights warriers, is a question we file under "Q" subcategory "Questions Eunuchs Ask" We have several prepared responses to this question. They're all rhetorical. The ethos of my warrior class is permeated with certainty of the durability of ... never mind, oh, short-lived one. In a word, no. "

BissageIf you don't want to be called Truther, don't act like one. Same creepy parallels after all -- kooky anything goes conspiracy theories with zero evidence, and the belief you hold some knowledge the rest of the world just can't see yet. You can't picture Ann and Andrew Sullivan racing to their computer every morning looking for shit to sling at the Clintons? And I'm the f-hole?

I said a few days ago I thought fstop was a troll and told him he needed to demonstrate his good faith or be gone. He's done the opposite, and I am now banning him from the site. He should not post again, and if he does, I will delete his posts unread. Please do not respond to him.

Well done, Ann. I was scrolling through this unreadable morass hoping to find that buffoon banned. There are probably some other ISPs on this thread that could benefit from the same treatment.

I'm no Democrat, but I found Bill Clinton's statement that Hillary is the most qualified candidate that he has ever had the chance to support to be laughable even by his standards. Kerry was comparable, but Gore, Dukakis, Mondale, Humphrey, and Carter were all far more qualfied. So were Bill Richardson, Gephardt, and Biden.

I'll give him McGovern for the idiocy of his campaign, but OTOH George McM was a war hero and at least had the guts to admit after failing in a small business that he wished he had had more of a clue when he was in politics.

Hillary was an undistinguished lawyer (the smartest woman in the world but a bar exam flunker) largely trading on hubby's clout, then a housewife, and then a 1+ term Senator of middling at best accomplishment. And that career leaves her qualified her to be President and with $5M to throw around? Her lack of actual accomplishment and leadership is actually quite striking for someone who has been planning to be President for so long.

Bill Clinton's story is inspiring, but I think the reference to him as trailer trash goes to his character (not background) and is thus accurate. He is utterly classless. Lots of people who grow up in trailerland are never trailer trash. Some people who grow up in mansions (Teddy? Why were you swimming fully clothed?) are trailer trash. You've got more trailer trash in trailer parks than on the Vineyard, I'd bet, but the exception tests the rule and finds it less than universal.

It's not a complicated point, though some of the trolls here don't seem to understand it.

I don't pretend to be qualified for the Presidency, but I passed the bar on the first try--all by myself except for the proctors and other applicants, who didn't help me!

One last thing: it was nice to read someone commenting intelligently on Nixon.

Cedarford, add Herbert Hoover to that list (another Quaker's son). His two room birthplace is also in view of his grave, like Nixon's.

Michelman had to have known that question was coming. "Thank you for pointing out my age" or "I'm going to out-live you" would have been quick thinking. Chrissy would believe that feminism is all about advancing the cause of one woman.

I too have nothing but good things about Nixon. Trott used to kill the Yankees when he was on the Sawx and I was so happy when they dropped him. Maybe we can pick him up as a pinch hitter/dh. He is a winning player. That's why you can say Nixons the one.